Jose Mourinho
Write the first paragraph of your article here. On Special 1TV / I'm on Setanta Sports AKA "The Special One". Self-assured and arrogant, he was the anchor of the "news program," read viewer emails, took phone calls on the air, and introduced video segments. José, who referred himself as the "Special One", often hyped himself up using phrases like "I'm fantastic". He was also particularly blunt, and often told participants to "shut up." The show always ended with the line, usually spoken by José, "Be champions." Jose in Real Life The chance to become a top-tier manager arrived in September 2000 when Mourinho moved up from his role as assistant coach at Lisbon side Benfica to replace head coach Jupp Heynckes after the fourth week of the Portuguese Liga. The Benfica hierarchy wanted to appoint Jesualdo Ferreira as the new assistant coach but Mourinho refused and picked Carlos Mozer, a retired Benfica defender, as his right-hand man instead.10 Mourinho was highly critical of Ferreira, whom he had first encountered as his teacher at ISEF, and later lambasted the veteran coach by stating: "This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but never became a horse." Only weeks after being given the job at Benfica, Mourinho's mentor, Bobby Robson, offered him the assistant manager's role at Newcastle United. Such was Robson's desperation for Mourinho to join him he offered to step down after two years in charge and hand over the reins to Mourinho. Mourinho turned the offer down and said he knew Robson would never step down at the club he loved.12 Mourinho and Mozer proved a popular combination, enjoying a 3–0 win against fierce rivals Sporting in December. However, their reign appeared to be at risk after Benfica's election turned against club president João Vale e Azevedo, and the newly-elected Manuel Vilarinho said that he would instate ex-Benfica player Toni as his new coach. Although Vilarinho had no intention of firing him immediately, Mourinho used the victory over Sporting to test the president's loyalty and he asked for a contract extension. Vilarinho refused the demand and Mourinho resigned from his position immediately. He left the club on 5 December 2000 after just nine league games in charge. Upon later reflection, Vilarinho rued his poor judgement and expressed his frustration at losing Mourinho: "me back then and I would do exactly the opposite: I would extend his contract. Only later I realised that one's personality and pride cannot be put before the interest of the institution we serve."13 Mourinho quickly found a new managerial post in January 2001 with União de Leiria, whom he took to their highest-ever league finish of fifth place. Mourinho's successes at Leiria did not go unrecognised and he caught the attention of larger Portuguese clubs. He was then hand-picked in January 2002 by FC Porto to replace Octávio Machado. Mourinho guided the team to third place that year after a strong 15-game run (W-D-L: 11-2-2) and gave the promise of "making Porto champions next year". He quickly identified several key players whom he saw as the backbone of what he believed would be a perfect Porto team: Vítor Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev, and Hélder Postiga. He recalled captain Jorge Costa after a six-month loan to Charlton Athletic. The signings from other clubs included Nuno Valente and Derlei from União de Leiria, Paulo Ferreira from Vitória de Setúbal, Pedro Emanuel from Boavista, and Edgaras Jankauskas, and Maniche, who both had been out of contract at Benfica. During the pre-season, Mourinho put on the club website detailed reports on the team training. The reports were filled with formal vocabulary, as, for instance, he referred to a 20 km jog as an extended aerobic exercise. While they attracted some scorn for the pretentiousness, others praised the innovation and the application of a more scientific approach to the training methods practised in Portugal. One of the key aspects in Mourinho-era Porto was the pressuring play, which started at the offensive line, dubbed pressão alta ("high pressure"). The physical and combative abilities of defenders and midfielders such as Derlei, Maniche and Deco allowed Porto to apply pressure from the offensive lines and forced opponents either to concede the ball or try longer, uncertain passes. In 2003, Mourinho won his first Portuguese Liga with a 27-5-2 W-D-L record, 11 points clear of Benfica, the team he quit two years earlier. The total of 86 points out of the possible maximum of 102 was a Portuguese record since the rule of three points per win was introduced, beating the previous record of 85 points set by Porto in their 1996–97 season. Mourinho also won the Portuguese Cup (against former club Leiria) and the UEFA Cup final against Celtic in Seville, both in May 2003. The following season witnessed further successes beginning by winning the one-match Portuguese SuperCup, beating Leiria 1–0; however the UEFA Super Cup was lost 1–0 to Milan, Andrei Shevchenko scoring the solitary goal. Porto scooped their 20th Super Liga title. The club pulled off a perfect home record, an eight-point advantage, and an unbeaten run that only ended against Gil Vicente. They secured the title five weeks before the end of the season, while heavily involved in the Champions League at the same time. Porto lost the Portuguese Cup final to Benfica in May 2004, but two weeks later Mourinho won the ultimate prize: the Champions League, with a 3–0 win over AS Monaco in the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The club had eliminated Manchester United, Olympique Lyonnais and Deportivo La Coruña and saw only one defeat against Real Madrid in the group round. Mourinho's win over Manchester United would prove to be particularly noteworthy as he and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson would compete in the Premier League in the years that followed. Mourinho's Porto won 2-1 in the first leg at home, continuing the dominance of Porto over English opposition on home soil. Benni McCarthy scored a brace and Porto were boosted by the sending off of Manchester United's captain Roy Keane. In the second leg of the match, Manchester United took a 1-0 lead through Paul Scholes and Porto were on the verge of an away goals defeat when Costinha scored an injury time equalizer to put Porto through to the quarterfinals. Mourinho's flamboyant celebration as he raced down the touchline at Old Trafford to congratulate the Porto players would be memorable to English fans. Whilst still at Porto, Mourinho was linked with several top European clubs, including Liverpool, Real Madrid and Chelsea. Mourinho publicly stated his preference for the Liverpool job over the Chelsea one. He said: "Liverpool are a team that interests everyone and Chelsea does not interest me so much because it is a new project with lots of money invested in it. I think it is a project which, if the club fail to win everything, then Roman Abramovich could retire and take the money out of the club. It's an uncertain project. It is interesting for a coach to have the money to hire quality players but you never know if a project like this will bring success". Mourinho was only days away from becoming Liverpool manager but a large offer from Roman Abramovich and Liverpool's change of heart in opting to sign Rafael Benitez was enough for him to pledge his immediate future to Chelsea. Mourinho moved to Chelsea in June 2004, becoming one of the highest paid managers in football with a salary of £4.2 million a year, subsequently raised in 2005 to £5.2 million.18 In a press conference upon joining the English side, Mourinho said, "Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one", which resulted in the media dubbing him "The Special One".19 Mourinho recruited his backroom staff from Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout André Villas Boas and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. He retained the services of Steve Clarke, a long-serving former player at Chelsea, who had also performed an assistant managerial-type role under previous managers at the club. In terms of spending, Mourinho carried on where his predecessor Claudio Ranieri left off, as, bankrolled by Roman Abramovich, he spent in excess of £70 m in transfer fees on players such as Tiago (£10 million) from Benfica, Didier Drogba (£24 million) from Marseille, Mateja Kezman (£5.4 million) from PSV and Porto pair Ricardo Carvalho (£19.8 million) and Paulo Ferreira (£13.3 million). Under Mourinho, Chelsea built on the potential developed in the previous season. By early December, they were at the top of the Premier League table and had reached the knock-out stages of the Champions League. He scooped his first trophy by winning the League Cup against Liverpool 3–2 (AET) in Cardiff. Towards the end of the match, Mourinho was escorted from the touchline after putting his finger to his mouth in the direction of Liverpool fans, as a response to taunts directed towards him whilst Liverpool were leading, before the equalising goal. The club added more trophies as they secured their first top-flight domestic title in 50 years, setting a string of English football records in the process. However, he failed to achieve back-to-back Champions League successes when Chelsea were knocked out of the competition by a controversial goal in the semi-finals by eventual winners Liverpool.20 Chelsea started the next season well. They defeated Arsenal 2–1 to win the FA Community Shield, and topped the Premier League from the first weekend of the 2005–06 season. Chelsea beat rivals Manchester United 3–0 to win their second consecutive Premiership title and Mourinho's fourth domestic title in a row. After the presentation of his championship medal, Mourinho threw his medal and blazer into the crowd. He was awarded a second medal within minutes which he also threw into the crowd. The signing of Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko in the summer of 2006 for a club record fee would also prove to be a point of contention between Mourinho and Abramovich. Shevchenko, at the time of his signing, was one of the most highly regarded strikers in Europe during his time with Milan, where he won the Champions League, Scudetto and Ballon d'Or awards in his seven years at Milan. Chelsea had attempted to sign Shevchenko in the preceding two years but Milan rebuffed Abramovich's interest in him. Shevchenko's first season at Chelsea was viewed as a disappointment by the Chelsea fans as he only scored four league goals and fourteen in all competitions. Shevchenko's strike partner, Didier Drogba had the highest scoring season of his career that year and this led Shevchenko to be dropped from the starting line-up towards the end of the season by Mourinho. Notably, in the Champions League match at Anfield, Shevchenko was not even included on the bench. Abramovich's insistence on Mourinho playing the Ukrainian was widely viewed as a further source of friction between the two men. Shevchenko's signing was not the only one for Chelsea, however as German captain Michael Ballack was also signed to strengthen the midfield. The Icelandic midfielder Eiður Guðjohnsen, an important player for Chelsea under Ranieri and Mourinho, departed the club for FC Barcelona. The 2006–07 season saw growing media speculation that Mourinho would leave the club at the season's conclusion, due to alleged poor relations with owner Roman Abramovich and a power struggle with sporting director Frank Arnesen and Abramovich advisor Piet de Visser. Mourinho later cleared doubts regarding his future at Stamford Bridge, stating that there would only be two ways for him to leave Chelsea: if Chelsea were not to offer him a new contract in June 2010, and if Chelsea were to sack him.21 He then launched an ambitious campaign for all four trophies available with the aim of becoming the first club in English football to complete "the quadruple". Despite the unrest, Chelsea, under Mourinho won the League Cup again by defeating Arsenal in the final at the Millennium Stadium. However the possibilty of the quadruple was brought to an end on 1 May 2007 when Liverpool eliminated Chelsea from the UEFA Champions League on penalties at Anfield, following a 1–1 aggregate draw. Days later Chelsea failed to win the Premier League title by drawing 1–1 with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 6 May 2007. This meant that the title went to Manchester United. This was Mourinho's first season without a league title win in five years. Mourinho led Chelsea to a 1–0 victory against Manchester United in the 2007 FA Cup Final, winning in the first final to be played at the new Wembley Stadium. This was his first FA Cup win which meant that he had won every domestic trophy available to a Premier League manager. However, there was to be further friction between himself and Abramovich when Avram Grant was appointed as Director of Football, despite objections from Mourinho. Grant's position was further enhanced by being given a seat on the board. In spite of these tensions,the 2007-08 transfer season would see the departure of Dutch winger Arjen Robben to Real Madrid and French midfielder Florent Malouda moved to Chelsea. Shevchenko was linked with a return to AC Milan but he remained at Chelsea for another year. In the first match of the 2007-08 season, Chelsea beat Birmingham City 3-2 to set a new record of 64 consecutive home league matches without defeat, surpassing the record set by Liverpool between 1978 and 1981.22 Despite this feat, Chelsea's start to the 2007–08 season was not as successful as previous starts. The team lost at Aston Villa and followed this with a goalless draw at home to Blackburn Rovers. Their opening game in the UEFA Champions League saw them only manage a 1–1 home draw against the Norwegian team Rosenborg in front of an almost half-empty stadium. Andriy Shevchenko scored Chelsea's only goal in that match. He unexpectedly left Chelsea on 20 September 2007 'by mutual consent' although there had been a series of disagreements with chairman Roman Abramovich. The Chelsea board held an emergency meeting and decided it was time to part with their manager. Mourinho left as the most successful manager in Chelsea's history having won six trophies for the club in three years. He was also undefeated in all home league games. Avram Grant succeeded Jose Mourinho as Chelsea manager but failed to win any trophies in his year in charge, although he finished second in the Champions League, Premier League and League Cup in the process. On 2 June 2008, Mourinho was appointed the successor of Roberto Mancini at Internazionale on a three-year contract, and brought along with him much of his backroom staff who had served him at both Chelsea and Porto. He chose Giuseppe Baresi, a former Inter player and ex-head coach of their youth academy, as his assistant. He spoke solely in Italian in his first press conference as Inter boss, claiming to have learnt it "in three weeks". Mourinho stated that he only intended to make a few major signings in the summer. By the end of the transfer window, he had brought three new players to the side: Brazilian winger Mancini (€12.5 million), Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari for €14 million, and Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma for a reported cash/player exchange fee of €18 million plus young Portuguese midfielder Pelé. In his first season as Inter head coach, Mourinho won the Italian Supercup, beating Roma on penalties, and finished top of Serie A. However, Inter were eliminated 2–0 on aggregate by Manchester United in the first knock-out round of the UEFA Champions League, and he also failed to win the Coppa Italia, being defeated 3–1 on aggregate by Sampdoria in the semi-finals.32 As UEFA was beginning to push the larger clubs in top leagues to play more homegrown players, Mourinho regularly played 18-year-old Italian forward Mario Balotelli and promoted academy defender Davide Santon to the first team permanently — installing an Italian contingent into a team previously composed of mostly foreign players. Both teenagers played a part in the Scudetto-winning season and played enough games to earn their first senior trophy. Despite his domestic successes in winning the Scudetto by a ten point margin, Jose Mourinho's first season in Italy was viewed as disappointing by some Inter fans as they failed to improve on the performances of his predecessor Roberto Mancini in the Champions League. Inter put in a series of lacklustre group stage performances that included a shock 1-0 home loss to Panathinaikos and an away draw with Cypriot minnows Anorthosis Famagusta. Mourinho was unable to improve the performances of their star player Zlatan Ibrahimović, who scored just one group stage goal for Inter, compared to the five he scored in Mancini's unsuccessful 2007-08 campaign. Inter Milan were eliminated from the Champions League after being defeated by Manchester United in the knockout stages. Mourinho also caused immediate ripples in Italian football through his controversial relationships with the Italian press and media, and feuds with major Serie A coaches such as Carlo Ancelotti then of Milan, Luciano Spalletti of Roma and Claudio Ranieri of Juventus. At a press conference in March 2009, he insulted the first two rivals by claiming they would end the season with no honours—and accused the Italian sport journalists of "intellectual prostitution" on their behalf. This rant promptly became very popular in Italy, especially regarding the "zero titles" quote used by Mourinho, and incorrectly pronounced by him as zeru tituli (in correct Italian it would have been "zero titoli"), which was later extensively referred to by football journalists in Italy. It also became the title's catchphrase used by fans to celebrate Inter's 17th scudetto later that season. The catchphrase was even used by Nike to present the celebration shirts for Inter's Serie A title. After the Coppa Italia final in May, fans of Roma's cross-town rivals Lazio, the new Coppa Italia winners, wore shirts with Io campione, tu zero titoli ("I'm a champion, you have no honours") on it37, quoting Mourinho's "zeru tituli" statement. On 16 May 2009 Inter mathematically won the Serie A title, after runners-up Milan lost to Udinese. This loss left the Nerazzurri seven points above their crosstown rivals with only two games remaining. They would eventually finish ten points clear of Milan. On 28 July 2009, Mourinho was reported to have shown interest in taking over at Manchester United when Alex Ferguson retired. He was quoted as saying "I would consider going to Manchester United but United have to consider if they want me to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson. If they do, then of course." Under Mourinho, Inter have remained active in the transfer market. Adriano left Inter in April 2009, and the exit of the Brazilian striker was followed by the Argentine duo Julio Cruz and Hernán Crespo. Legendary Portuguese attacking midfielder and veteran Luís Figo retired. Figo was on the verge of leaving Inter under Mancini due to a lack of playing time but in his final season, Mourinho used him frequently. Mourinho signed Argentine striker Diego Milito, who fell just one goal short of winning the top scorer award with Genoa and Thiago Motta to bolster the midfield. Perhaps his most notable signing of the summer of his second season was a swap deal of Zlatan Ibrahimović for Barcelona's Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o. This transfer was the second most expensive in the history of the transfer market after Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid earlier in the summer. Eto'o got off to a promising start with Inter by scoring two goals in the first two matches of the season. Ricardo Quaresma's signing from Mourinho's old club Porto was viewed as a missing link in the Inter squad but his play disappointed the club and led him to be loaned off to Chelsea midway through the season, ironically Mourinho's other former club. Mancini also failed to dominate in the midfield and addressing these shortcomings in the transfer market became a priority for Inter. Inter's lack of a creative playmaker or trequartista has been blamed for the Champions League failure. In their attempt to deal with this issue, Inter signed Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder from Real Madrid. Mourinho once again sparked controversy in the summer with his argument with Italy national team coach Marcello Lippi. Lippi predicted that Juventus would win the Scudetto in the 2009-10 season, which Mourinho viewed Lippi's comments as disrespectful to Inter. The previous year, Lippi predicted Inter would win the title and Mourinho did not respond to his prediction. Lippi responded by saying that Mourinho was equal to Ciro Ferrara and Leonardo at Juventus and Milan, respectively, only that he was more experienced. After the row with Lippi, he clashed with Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro over Davide Santon's place in the Inter squad. Cannavaro had said that Santon might have to leave Inter to get regular playing time so he wants to play for Italy in the World Cup. Mourinho responded by saying that Cannavaro was acting like a coach. Inter struggled in their first two matches of the new season. The team lost the Italian SuperCup to Lazio 2-1 and drew 1-1 with newly promoted Bari at the San Siro. However, Mourinho's team improved dramatically since then as he built a formidable midfield with Sneijder at the heart of it and the likes of new signing Thiago Motta and veterans Javier Zanetti and Dejan Stanković. Inter went on score more than 30 goals (as of the end of November), thrashing derby rivals Milan 4-0, with new signings Diego Milito and Motta both scoring, and hammering Genoa 5-0, the largest margin of victory in the Serie A so far.